Design Interview: Laurice Rahmé
Laurice RahméBond No. 9
By Marie Redding, Senior EditorLaurice Rahmé is president of the Paris-based House of Creed, which is the oldest perfumerie in the world. She also owns and runs three Creed Perfume stores in New York City, and in March, she launched the Bond No. 9 collection, named after the New York flagship store's address at 9 Bond St. The collection consists of 16 different fragrances, each named after neighborhoods in Manhattan.
Nouveau Bowery (by Robertet Fragrances) is a fresh mix of lime, basil, and wild lily; Park Avenue (by Mane USA) is a more refined scent of chamomile, paperwhites, and vanilla; and Fashion Avenue (by Robertet Fragrances) is a sexy combination of mimosa, ylang-ylang, and black currant. Dragoco also made some of the line's scents.
Born in Paris, Rahmé has lived in New York for 25 years. "I was inspired by the strong emotional attachment I had--all New Yorkers have--with their neighborhoods. Each area is so unique. I use the city as a design concept," she says.
The collection isn't packaged at all--and won't be until July when it starts shipping to specialty stores across the United States for a September 2003 launch. For now, Rahmé has created a way for customers in each of the three Creed stores to package it themselves.
"It's customization to the max. You choose the scent,
the type of bottle, and the amount you want. You can even pour it into the bottle yourself, or an attendant will," Rahmé explains.
A selection of bottles are available in every price range. One manufactured by O. Berk Co. (Union, NJ) looks like a glamorous, old-fashioned atomizer. They're "dressed" in the newest fabrics and colors every season. There's one in pink metallic, another in turquoise suede, and then, of course, one in basic black.
Rahmé's do-it-yourself idea required the store to be redesigned for the launch of the collection, which she explained to the industry at a recent Think Tank session held at The Fragrance Foundation.
"Six-foot-high, velvet-covered mannequins are my silent salespeople, which hold giant glass amphoras filled with perfume," she says. "Customers hate to be attacked with samples in the department store, so now they can walk up to any of the scents and spritz a tester strip themselves, or pull down the lever to fill a bottle." The mannequins were created by display designer and artist Ron Rowe.
For customers who want a scent with the packaging already chosen for them, Rahmé designed a unisex star-shaped bottle, meant to represent the shape of a person. The bottle is manufactured by Bormioli Luigi (Parma, Italy; and Langhorne, PA). She uses an image of a subway token on the label as a logo.
"I went everywhere looking for something to represent New York. I decided on the token. It's a modern symbol, yet it's almost an antique now, since they've replaced it with the Metro Card," Rahmé says.
The outer carton will be a white gift box by Wallace Packaging in Maspeth, NY, designed after a chocolate box.
"Paris was the place to be, for the last century," decides Rahmé. "The next century will continue to be about New York. It has already become the fashion capital, and now perfume will follow."